He slipped the fighter under the wings of one of the Iranian jets "to check out their weapons load without them knowing that he was there." And then, according to Welsh, Sutterfield "pulled up on their left wing" and "called them and said 'you really ought to go home.'" (www.avweb.com) More...

And then, according to Welsh, Sutterfield "pulled up on their left wing" and "called them and said 'you really ought to go home." Kinda reminds you a little bit of Tom Cruse and his Tomcat. " Kinda brings a little tear to your eye, don't it.

I was thinking the exact same thing. I'm sure that's also exact press statement the general said back in 1982 in regards to the "MiG-28" sighting. So I'm guessing the F-22 pilot didn't say, "you really ought to go home", he probably rolled inverted and flipped him the bird. Probably took an Instagram to prove it.

Sounds like a movie--to an absurd degree. Makes for a just great adversary to a 30+ year old plane without part support for almost as long. As Bill Sweetman points out nicely in recent Aviation Week analysis, Russians have already figured out how to remove most of the advantages of our stealth systems, having known for 25 years exactly what we were doing. I'm sure Gen Welsh was a hit at the Air Force Association, and that he's well on his way to a double or triple-dipping paycheck with--say--Boeing or Lockheed, but instead of focusing on a showboating example (assuming it's remotely true), perhaps he could have shown us just how effective this bankrupting airplane has been in an active war zone--only problem is, it's never been used in one. It has been a big hit, though in the war zone of airshows. Instead, perhaps the General should have just run some of the many hours of YouTube of guys, unlike the General, who are actually fighting on the actual ground being actually saved by A-10s. But Generals don't line their pockets with the brutally and wonderfully effective Warthog. Nope, most of them probably opposed it.

Make us all feel good with the story; even if it ain't so, it feels good and brings on a laugh in these discouraging times. Sad part is, you really hit home on the A10's. After being there for years, and before that F 16's and even F100's down to 86's, they are leaving out of FSM at the rate of 1 per month from the 188th at FSM, going down in GA to Moody, and to be slowly replaced by drones. Ain't a prettier sight in the world to an Afghan grunt than a hog swooping down on a bad line. They can say what they want about the F35 but with the Hog, you see what you are shooting at.

And to think the Air Force was about to dump the A-10's in the late 1980s because it wasn't as pretty F-16. Some of the AF big wigs thought(that's a novel notion) the F-16 could do the job of the A-10. Then the balloon went up in Iraq all of a sudden, the A-10 was everybody's favorite. And they still are if you want close air support!

You are not serioues when mentioning that stupid looking, hard to fly cross breed thing between a helicopter and a dump truck (LOL). To be honest with you I think the Osprey is hopeless case, it has all the shortcomings of a helo i.e. slow speed and a very expensive proposition too.

I agree phil rudd. The F4 smokes so bad you can see it 10-20miles away. It's not a threat in the Gulf arena unless your radar operator and lookouts are sleeping on watch. To go head to head with a modern fighter is suicide, unless it's been flown by a Vietnam War Vet. Then any only then will the plane have a snowball chance.